San Francisco, California-- A small group of AIDS denialists calling themselves ACT
UP/San Francisco have made a foiled attempt Monday to shut down a community
educational forum for people living with HIV.

The forum, addressing a new anti-HIV treatment strategy,
Structured Therapy Interruptions, was co-sponsored by
Project Inform and the newly formed AIDS advocacy group, Survive AIDS!

The AIDS denialists burst into the meeting brandishing signs claiming that the
anti-HIV medication AZT and other HIV treatments were killing people. They
began spitting and screaming incoherent slogans, according to officials.

After a few minutes of such shouts and discourtesies
during which the dissidents tossed pamphlets around the room, they headed for the
door as word spread that police had been summoned.

People living with HIV who were attending the forum
stood up to silence them with shouts
of "shame, shame, shame!" and with "shut up and get out!" The
AIDS denialists left the premises without having garnered
any visible support.

In recent days, various members of the AIDS denialist movement have been
reinvigorated by news that South African President Mbeki has been
listening to the claims of dissident Drs. Peter Duesberg and David Rasnick.

The two renegade physicians, who question whether HIV causes AIDS or whether
AIDS exists at all, are likened by mainstream scientists to the small
movement of people who have denied the existence of the Holocaust in World
War II.

Subsequent to contact with the denialists, South Africa has
refused to supply readily available treatment to prevent mother-to-child
transmission of HIV or wider treatment for South African's with AIDS.

While ACT-UP San Francisco is certainly not in President Mbeki's rolodex,
the group is, in fact, the San Francisco contingent of the AIDS denialist
movement.

On other occasions the group has papered the city with posters
claiming "AIDS is Over" and some members have met with conservative forces
urging the US Congress to cut back on AIDS funding.
"As a person living with HIV," noted Hank Wilson, a long-time activist who
was at the disrupted meeting, "it's appalling that there has not been a more
pronounced response by the political leadership in San Francisco to stop
this group and the genocide they are perpetuating in our communities."
Matt Sharpe, a member of Survive AIDS! and a person living with HIV
further noted, "People with HIV/AIDS came to the forum to learn and share
their experiences. This small, right-wing faction of homophobic and
AIDSphobic individuals attempted to disrupt the free flow of information
among people facing a life-threatening illness. To support people living
with HIV, San Francisco must develop a policy of zero tolerance for this
pitiful, infantile group."

Martin Delaney of Project Inform, a speaker at the meeting who was
personally targeted by the demonstrators, commented:

"Everyone in this city has shown remarkable restraint for years in dealing with their [ACT
UP/San Francisco's] infantile and illegal behavior, hoping they would
eventually grow up or just get a life. Other cities ran them out of town
much more quickly. But their time here is over and their full spectrum of
activities will now be brought out into the light."

"It's ironic," said Brenda Lein of Project Inform, moderator of the
program, "that of all the forces we have fought against in the battle
against AIDS, nothing short of the virus, HIV, itself has been directly
responsible for more deaths and suffering than the message being preached
by these people. They are sowing the seeds of the future of the epidemic
while attempting to divert those already ill from taking advantage of
advances in therapy. It's mind boggling."

Meetings, according to Project Inform,
are being set up with City Officials to discuss putting a halt to what it calls
“the continued discrimination and violence against people living with AIDS
by this handful of heretics.”